Poll

Opinion

In the late 1990s, when the General Assembly overhauled Kentucky’s public colleges and universities, one of the reform’s central planks was to improve the level of research.
To spur that along, the state created “Bucks for Brains” and called on the schools to match that money with private donations, an initiative that has since raised more than $800 million.

The Bluegrass Pipeline remains a work in progress.
Governor Steve Beshear doesn't see it as a pressing issue, but at least one group of legislators is trying to learn about the project and its potential impact.
Executives from the Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners testified Sept. 5 before the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment. The hearings were broadcast live on KET, and the video of the hearing remains available online (http://www.ket.org/legislature/archives.php).

In a letter to the editor in last week’s edition, a part of the letter by Gary Wilkerson should have read, “Our current president wants to attack Syria for no more than the known fact that the government allowed the murder of innocent humans. The numbers having been estimated at 1,400 citizens, including the focal point of 426 children.”

Recently, I attended a presentation by Williams and Boardwalk before the state natural resources and environmental committee. The program began with an overview of their dream pipeline project by three company representatives. Predictably, this consisted of how much they care about safety, the environment, and how happy landowners will be with their pipeline and their perpetual relationship with the Williams and Boardwalk empire and whoever follows them.

In the broadest sense, the population changes Kentucky has seen over the last 50 years have largely fallen in line with the country as a whole.
We have both become increasingly urban, for example, with Kentucky’s tipping point coming in 1970, when the U.S. Census found for the first time that more than half of our citizens lived in or near a city. Both of us are also witnessing the same graying trend, which is no surprise because of advances in medicine and the growing number of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age.

Since the Williams Company and Boardwalk Pipeline announced plans earlier this year to run a portion of a 1,100-mile natural gas liquid (NGL) pipeline through Kentucky and through our community here, I’ve heard many concerns by landowners and community members. Concerns that I share.
The legislature has been closely following the situation and last week convened a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy focused on the issue. I am confident this is just the beginning of many conversations we will have in Frankfort about the pipeline.

With Labor Day behind us and a “biting cold and snowy” winter to come – if the Farmers’ Almanac prediction proves correct – the clock is ticking for those of us who would like to see some of what Kentucky has to offer during the fall.

Goodness knows, a state that grows tobacco, which kills people, and champions products like gambling and liquor is hard-pressed to put on airs when it comes to industrial hemp, a botanical cousin to marijuana.
So we stand by our longstanding support for legalizing industrial hemp production.
But make no mistake about it, industrial hemp will not transform Kentucky's economy.

Proposed U.S. strike on Syria raises major concerns
Perhaps my age — late 80s — leads me to reflect on the past even while I am gravely concerned about the present, specifically now the proposed U.S. strike on Syria. Memory brings up the key role of Damascus in the history of religion. And as I view the President and the Secretary of State declaiming the rightness of their call to arms, memory brings up their more enlightened years. To them I write:

I have attended three local informational meetings regarding the proposed pipeline project through our beautiful state and one in Elizabethtown, which was put on by the pipeline companies. I asked questions of the experts supplied and based on their answers I have concluded that absolutely no good can possibly come to the people of Kentucky by allowing this project to begin. It is a very bad idea for our environment, for our safety and for our land values.

The last paragraph of two stories in last week’s edition were cut off accidentally.
The end of, "Abell values team work" about Mike Abell, the new Marion County High School Principal should have read: “I want to be involved,” he said. “I want to make myself available to the community.”
"More valuable than the dollar figure" about Marion County residents who do now want a pipeline on their property, ended on a quote from Dorothee Sheehan, one of the property owners.

More books wanted?
The Marion County Heritage Center in Lebanon has asked for my book called "St. Francis of Assisi Beginnings" covering the 100th Anniversary of the church at St. Francis, Ky., in 1996. However, right away I sold all of the 1,000 books that I had printed and never reordered. I've had a few people over the years to call and ask for one but I didn't have enough names to reorder.

Every year since the late 1980s, the Kentucky State Police has published a highly detailed break-down of the previous year’s crimes, giving us a much closer look at – and appreciation of – the work done every day by our law enforcement officers.
This information from local and state departments alike is also crucial for those who oversee the state’s criminal justice system, because it points out trends that might otherwise go unnoticed and helps us determine the effectiveness of programs designed to make Kentucky safer.

90.26 Except in agricultural zoning districts, it shall be unlawful to keep poultry within the corporate limits of the city at any time during any year. (Ord. 08-01, passed Sept. 8, 2008)

In the Aug. 21, edition of The Lebanon Enterprise, on page A15, the headline reads “Chickens still an issue for city.” The article gave a brief but detailed description of the Lebanon City Council meeting held on Aug. 12.

In the name of Kentuckians all along the route of the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline, I write to commend Senator Jimmy Higdon and the other eight Kentucky senators who co-sponsored a resolution expressing the desire of the Senate to protect our state from abuse of eminent domain and from unscrutinized siting of and absence of regulation for the misguided and frightening project called the Bluegrass Pipeline.

Last week, the General Assembly returned to the Capitol to re-draw the geographic lines that govern the 100-member House of Representatives and the 38-member Senate.
It’s something we and every other state are called upon to do each decade, to reflect the differences in population found by the Census.